Ikigai : the Japanese secret to a long and happy life pdfdrive com

As Easy as Getting out of Your Chair
“Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries to your muscles, where it can get burned off, slow down. And after two hours, good cholesterol drops 20 percent. Just getting up for five minutes is going to get things going again. These things are so simple they’re almost stupid,” says Gavin Bradley¹ in a 2015 interview with Brigid Schulte for the Washington Post.² Bradley is one of the preeminent experts on the subject, and the director of an international organization dedicated to building awareness of how detrimental sitting all the time can be to our health.
If we live in a city, we might find it hard to move in natural and healthy ways every day, but we can turn to exercises that have proven for centuries to be good for the body.
The Eastern disciplines for bringing body, mind, and soul into balance have become quite popular in the West, but in their countries of origin they have been used for ages to promote health.
Y oga—originally from India, though very popular in Japan—and China’s qigong and tai chi, among other disciplines, seek to create harmony between a person’s body and mind so they can face the world with strength, joy, and serenity.
They are touted as elixirs of youth, and science has endorsed the claim.
They are touted as elixirs of youth, and science has endorsed the claim.
These gentle exercises offer extraordinary health benefits, and are particularly appropriate for older individuals who have a harder time staying fit.
Tai chi has been shown, among other things, to slow the development of osteoporosis and Parkinson’s disease, to increase circulation, and to improve muscle tone and flexibility. Its emotional benefits are just as important: It is a great shield against stress and depression.
Y ou don’t need to go to the gym for an hour every day or run marathons. As Japanese centenarians show us, all you need is to add movement to your day. Practicing any of these Eastern disciplines on a regular basis is a great way to do so. An added benefit is that they all have well-defined steps, and as we saw in chapter IV, disciplines with clear rules are good for flow. If you don’t like any of these disciplines, feel free to choose a practice that you love and that makes you move.
In the following pages we’ll take a look at some of the practices that promote health and longevity—but first, a little appetizer: a singularly Japanese exercise for starting your day.